By ‘Majirata Latela
The enraged Community of Polihali is demanding compensation for their fields which the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) took control of five years ago.
The community resorted to intermittently barricading with rocks the road that leads to one of the camp sites at Masakong village since March 14.
Masakong community leader, Lebohang Lengoasa said in January this year the community held discussions with the LHDA where they demanded compensation for the fields earmarked to be affected by the construction of the Polihali Dam. The LHDA had promised it would pay out compensation money in two months’ time. But this never came to pass.
“On March 8 2022 I called to remind LHDA that the two months we had agreed on had just only two days left. They never responded and that is why the following week we decided that we are going to block the road that leads to our fields on which the camp has been constructed.
“We have decided to block the road because we want LHDA to pay for our fields. We cannot be starving in our homes while LHDA continues with the project as if nothing has happened. We are going to continue blocking the road until the last person has been paid.
“There are 37 people in Masakong waiting for compensation as per the LHDA promise. Before taking the decision to start demonstrating we checked on each one of the people who are yet to receive their compensation. It is one villager who has been compensated,” he said.
He added that the LHDA Polihali branch manager Gerald Mokone urged them to clear the road as the authority was already processing their monies. The police are being deployed to disperse the protesting villagers and clear the road, only for the disgruntled villages to blockade it again.
He expressed their disappointment and criticized the LHDA for inviting the police to disperse them and end their protest instead of working for a resolve of their grievances.
Lengoasa said yesterday said some of the villagers have begun receiving their monies. But he was at pains to accept the dishing out of the compensation saying it was too little.
This, he added, was far more less than the expected amounts promised by the LHDA.
He said they have written a letter to LHDA requesting an explanation as to why the amounts are now altered. He said all the time LHDA has been silent about the format that it uses to calculate the amounts to be paid out.
He added that as the community they are still not happy with the 50 years of compensation and that they plead for help for affected communities. He said they demand lifetime compensation instead.
One of the community members whose fields have been made way for construction of a workers’ camp at Masakong, ‘Mamolefi Raisi says since her fields were taken by LHDA she has been struggling to feed her family. It was only in 2019 when she was given M15 000 as compensation ‘for harvest’.
“I have not been able to use my field from 2018 when LHDA told me that the fields are going to be affected. I then received that cheque only once. I am very disappointed at the way LHDA takes long to process our money when they are busy with construction activities of the dam.
“I am no longer happy with the dam construction because I already foresee hunger and poverty among people who have been affected by the dam. We are not supposed to be running after the authority to give us what is due to us,” Raisi said.
LHDA’s public relations’ manager, Masilo Phakoe said yesterday Masakong community blocked access to the site establishment area which is where the permanent Polihali village and other accommodation and office facilities will be constructed. Access was blocked from March 14 2022.
He said the area also comprises temporary management camps for LHDA and various consultants. That meant that work on the Polihali village and lodge construction was affected as workers had no access to the construction site. He said access to and from the camp was also temporarily limited for the consultants and some LHDA officials that reside at the temporary management camp.
“While the works were temporarily stopped, the affected contractors for construction of housing and for the construction of the Polihali North East Access Road and the Consultant who is supervising the construction of the road between Ha Seshote and Semenanyane River have now resumed operations.
“The LHDA is sensitive to community concerns including those related to compensation payments. It initiated community engagements in the past to address these issues and continues to engage with the relevant community structures to address concerns on compensation delays. The LHDA compensates the affected communities the amounts that are stated in the filled in forms.
“LHDA started making compensation payments for households within the Masakong village from March 7 and all have now been paid their compensation.
“LHDA acknowledges that there have been delays in compensation payments in some areas but this needs to be understood within a context that before actual payment of compensation there is a process to follow,” Phakoe said.
He said the LHDA engages with affected households to register their assets, verify the information, consider the households compensation preferences and then enters into an agreement of compensation options with individual households. Compensation entitlements and payments per household are based on the type and size of asset lost.
He added that the compensation process is not simultaneous for all people affected by the Project.
“In cases where the Project needs to access people’s properties before payment has been issued, the LHDA consults the specific owners and an agreement is reached with them, allowing LHDA access to the land whilst payment is being expedited.
“There were households who opted for lumpsum payments but at one point it was not clear as to who among the affected indeed preferred Annual Compensation Payment. Further consultations were held to try and have final decision by the households on their preference. What could be considered as the final decision by the households was reached around October 2021,” He said.
He further explained that LHDA used cheques to pay compensation to the affected households. However, at the end of September 2021, the use of cheques as medium of exchange was phased out. The LHDA then had to embark on an outreach programme to assist the affected households to open bank accounts into which LHDA would transfer compensation funds.
He said the opening bank accounts is a process that takes quite a while especially for those households that reside in the remote and mountainous areas.
“Another factor that contributed to the delays is that by the time the LHDA was about to pay the compensation, it was discovered that some of the bank accounts were dormant and the owners of those accounts had to make arrangements to have those accounts active. This is the context we are referring to,” he concluded.
